How Will Lawyers’ Roles Evolve Alongside More Extensive, AI-Enhanced Automated Workflows??

Law firms are only beginning to tap into an endless galaxy of automated possibilities. What’s next? What else will law firms automate in our increasingly interconnected,? AI-enhanced world??

Law firms will put more expansive automations with integrated AI solutions in place, likely altering our current legal roles. That can be good, especially when it gives lawyers more time to develop new ways to serve clients and expand access to legal services.

Bridging the gap to automate multiparty interactions.

Law firms already automate entire workflows end-to-end. Some involve outside parties such as clients, opposing counsel, co-counsel, courts, experts, government agencies, and banks. Examples include electronically sending and receiving payments, collecting and producing discovery items, and filing court documents.?

Similarly, government agencies, organizations, and individuals increasingly connect digitally. You can now renew your driver's license, pay federal and state taxes, and manage your healthcare from your mobile device.

Typically, software applications make the required connections among systems and services through APIs, direct database connections, links to web services, and other means. When integrated, apps serve as conduits for automated processes to travel to, from, and across digital systems.

Future data and software standardization efforts will allow apps to work together even more seamlessly. That greater connectivity will enable firms to extend automated processes across more apps, including those that use AI to provide insights and recommendations.?

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More digital connections lead to more automation opportunities for law firms.

A recent Goldman Sachs found that generative AI could automate 44% of legal tasks in the U.S. In practice, basic automation may pull an address from a CRM app to populate fields in a form letter. Integrating an AI tool into the process can allow you to analyze the relationships among data points in the CRM software to determine relevant insights about an individual or company, e.g., learn that Company A requires contract renegotiation.

In an extended automated process, that determination then triggers the following steps. That could be adding Company A’s address into an auto-generated draft of a new contract, sending it out for client review, tracking responses, sending reminders to shepherd the contract through to completion, and storing the finalized contract in the appropriate repository. Further integrations among systems could automate information retrieval to satisfy compliance or investigative requests.

When legal professionals pull police reports and collect medical records, tomorrow’s automated systems will go beyond drafting request letters. They will send the requests to the appropriate agencies, track the status of requests, send notices of results, and update the case file with the new records automatically.?

Many more opportunities will arise. Legal work will still require lawyers' attention, but their responsibilities will be much less hands-on paperwork and more focused on client service.?

Give clients more personalized service and self-service options.

AI-enhanced connectivity will help lawyers better understand client relationships and provide more personalized experiences. This will include self-service options for transactional work, such as enabling clients to instantly create their own contracts, form a company, and file regulatory paperwork, to name just a few.?

Automated legal self-services can also expand beyond drafting documents to include filing paperwork with the appropriate agencies, tracking statuses, updating client and firm systems, and monitoring and alerting clients and lawyers to factors that affect matters going forward. Automation could handle common issues independently.?

The swift resolution of some matters may depend more on how efficiently a firm monitors, revises, and maintains automated processes than on a specific lawyer’s legal expertise and skills. Firms must monitor and update automated workflows consistently to ensure clients receive high-quality services and adapt firm services to changing client needs and preferences.??

More automation will change legal roles.

All of this is bound to change the legal roles we know today. Lawyers will spend more time overseeing workflows and reviewing auto-generated legal documents, communications, reports, and summaries, along with digital trails of automated actions taken. And they’ll spend less time performing routine, low-value tasks.

Extended, AI-enhanced automation will give lawyers more time to learn about their clients’ businesses, build meaningful and longer-lasting relationships, and engage in complex legal analysis. They’ll be able to focus on more creative and value-added work.?

Critically, law firms may soon discover their lawyers can accomplish more objectives for more clients without increasing individual workloads or stress levels. This, combined with other benefits such as enhanced efficiencies and lower costs, can enable firms to offer legal services to traditionally underserved clients and communities.?

There are several reasons to expect legal automation to grow. How will your firm prepare? If you have any questions or want to discuss how automating your legal practice can benefit your firm, call 877-926-4287 or visit Amicus Capital Group online today.?

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